Toba Sojo

Toba Sojo

(literally, Abbot of Toba; real name, Kakuyu). Born 1053; died July 31,1140, in Kozanji. Japanese painter and Buddhist monk.

Toba Sojo was one of the first masters of Japanese monochromatic ink drawing. He is credited with the “Scrolls of Frolicking Animals, ” four long horizontal scrolls showing various caricatures of animals and people. These works, executed with striking expressiveness and a delicate graphic style, are housed in the monastery of Kozanji, near Kyoto. Many contemporary researchers believe that Toba Sojo was not the painter of these scrolls, and regard them as the collective work of monks from Kozanji.

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